


Connected

by blackmustache



Category: Firefly
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-11
Updated: 2012-04-11
Packaged: 2017-11-03 11:27:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/380889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackmustache/pseuds/blackmustache
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal is currently earless. Clearly this needs to be fixed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Connected

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://khassa.livejournal.com/profile)[**khassa**](http://khassa.livejournal.com/) for the Mal/Simon ficathon. She wanted no love triangles, and for their relationship to not be public knowledge on Serenity. I hope I did okay with that!

**TITLE:** Connected  
 **AUTHOR:** Rach  
 **SUMMARY:** Mal is currently earless. Clearly this needs to be fixed.  
 **PAIRING:** Mal/Simon  
 **RATING:** PG-13.  
 **TIMELINE:** Post War Stories. No movie spoilers.  
 **DISCLAIMER:** I own nothing. Really, I do. Nothing what-so-ever.  
 **DISTRIBUTION:** Uhh … if you want it, ask! I’ll say yes. I don’t remotely bite!  
 **AUTHOR’S NOTE:** Written for [](http://khassa.livejournal.com/profile)[**khassa**](http://khassa.livejournal.com/) for the Mal/Simon ficathon. She wanted no love triangles, and for their relationship to not be public knowledge on Serenity. I hope I did okay with that!

  
“Okay,” Simon turned to Mal, a syringe in his hand. “I’m going to give you two shots before we start. This first one will probably make you feel light-headed; don’t worry about it, it’s supposed to do that.” Simon tapped the needle and plunged it into Mal’s arm. Normally, the captain would have winced at that, but the pain he was already experiencing due to currently having no _ear_ was unsurprisingly overwhelming it.

Simon was feeling more than a little nauseous himself. He’d never done anything like this before, and he’d rather not have to explain to Mal why he suddenly had an ear that was fused on upside down. He picked up the second needle.

“This one’s more localized. It’ll completely numb the … area.”

After giving Mal the injection, he turned to the dermal mender, which was whirring gently in anticipation of the job ahead. He didn’t really want to know why Inara’s client had the contacts to get one of these; he was just counting himself lucky that she did.

He worked carefully and in silence for the first hour or so, reattaching the ear in the correct position, and then pulled the mender closer to Mal, holding out a hand to the captain. “Grip on to me, tight as you like. This will hurt.”

Mal had been lying with his eyes closed, trying to ignore the fact that he was alternating between being woozy at the drugs and wincing at the tiny pin-pricks as Simon stitched at the area where his ear used to be. And hopefully would be again soon. Truth be told, he wasn’t at all convinced this was going to work, and he was spending the time wondering what it might be like to have just the one ear. So he hadn’t been expecting it when Simon spoke.

Opening one eye, he looked up at the doctor. “More than when the _chùsheng xai-jiao de xiang huo_ cut the gorram thing off in the first place?”  
 _  
_Simon thought about that for a minute. “Probably not, no.”

Mal almost wanted to laugh as he reached out to take Simon’s hand. “You sure you shouldn’t have both your hands on that thing?”

Simon _did_ laugh then, as the look on Mal’s face was displaying complete distaste for the piece of machinery that was most likely about to save his ear. “It’s very high-tech, Mal. Perfectly safe. I just need to keep an eye on it, but it should do most of the work itself now that I’ve done the basics.” He pushed a couple of buttons and squeezed Mal’s hand.

Mal raised his eyebrows. “Should?”

Simon nodded. He wasn’t going to lie; there was always a chance something would go wrong, and even if the machine did its job just fine, the ear could have been detached for too long.

Mal squeezed Simon’s hand back with a smirk. “How about a quickie before you get started? I’d hate for your contraption to slip and leave my eyes mended shut.”

Simon snorted with laughter. “No, Mal.” He paused, entertaining the idea for a minute. “People might see!”

Mal pulled a sad face, though Simon could see he was trying not to laugh himself. “That’s nice for them. I won’t ever be able to see anything ever again with my newly fused up eyes.”

“Well,” Simon mused. “I guess you have two options.”

Mal looked up, surprised. “I do?”

Simon nodded. “Yes. Either you let me get to fixing your ear back on right now, or you keep distracting me with talk of getting into your pants, and risk losing your ear forever.”

Mal pretended to consider that for a while. “Okay, we’ll go with the ear thing.”

\--

Mal woke to a throbbing on the left side of his head. It also felt like somebody was pinching his ear. He opened his eyes and stared at Simon, who, it appeared, was doing the nipping.

“You’re awake,” Simon smiled.

“Why are you nipping my ear?”

Simon’s grin widened. “You can feel that?”

“Of course I can feel it,” Mal frowned. “It’s my gorram ear! It’s connected to m-” He stopped. “Oh.” Now he was smiling too. “It’s connected to me!”

Simon laughed as he started to pack up the dermal mender. “Yes,” he nodded. “A complete success.”

Mal raised a hand to touch it, but Simon had reached out to grab the hand before it even got there. “Don’t _fiddle_ with it,” he warned.

“Why?” He jerked his hand away, worried. “Will it come back off?”

Simon just glared a bit. “It might.”

Mal tried to stop himself from touching it, but the order to leave it alone was just giving him even more of an urge to poke and prod it. The second Simon’s back was turned again, Mal started feeling the area around his ear, and then the ear itself. “Will it work right?”

Simon glanced back and rolled his eyes. “I told you to leave it alone.” He sighed. “Yes, it’ll work right. There may be some increased sensitivity in certain areas, but other than that, you shouldn’t feel any difference.”

Mal raised his eyebrows with a smirk. “Increased sensitivity? Sounds interesting…”

Simon laughed and blushed a little. Leaning towards the ear in question, he dropped his voice to a mutter. “Mmm. That’s what I’ve read.” He paused slightly. “We can investigate later.” Before Mal could get excited at the prospect, Simon straightened up and turned back to the dermal mender. “When you’re fully healed, of course,” he added.

He looked up as Inara knocked on the door and peered in. “How’s the patient?”

Smiling, Simon turned towards Mal. “Moaning, but he’ll survive.”

“I am not -”

Inara laughed and ignored Mal’s protests. “Everything go according to plan?”

He nodded. “Yes.” He paused, and blushed a little more, hoping she hadn’t heard his comments to Mal just before she walked in. “You can tell the Councillor’s people they can collect the mender any time.”

“I will.” She stood there a few seconds longer, and Simon coughed a little, feeling uncomfortable being around Mal with her there, in case he said or did something that would give them away.

“Thank her again, for the loan.” He smiled a little. “We’d have a one-eared and very crotchety captain without it.” He looked over at Mal. “Instead we just have a very crotchety captain.”

Mal just glared as Inara laughed, shaking her head with a smile. “She was glad to help.” She nodded a little towards Simon, and then left the infirmary to go make contact with the Councillor again.

“I am not crotchety,” Mal grumbled as Simon turned back to him.

“You will be, when your ear falls off again because you won’t stop fiddling with it.”

Mal considered this as he pushed himself into a sitting position and pulled Simon towards him. “It’s possible you have a point.” He leant in to kiss Simon and was abruptly pushed away by the doctor.

“Not _here_ ,” he smiled, and picked up some of the supplies he’d been packing to take out to the cargo bay where Inara was waiting. As he and Shepherd Book started to go through and check that everything was there, he spotted Mal coming towards them, still touching his ear. _He couldn’t just stay put for once, could he? Or follow a simple instruction._

“Sure this thing’s gonna stay on?” Mal asked, again. It was as if he didn’t trust Simon’s doctoring skills.

He sighed. “The dermal mender creates an excellent tissue bond.” He sounded like he was reading from a brochure, and he knew it. “Just don’t … don’t fiddle with it,” he repeated. As if Mal would ever listen. He knew the captain would be poking and prodding his ear until the day it either came off again, or the scars were healed completely. And even then, he probably wouldn’t stop. 


End file.
